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Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Global Protests Against ISIS Attack on Christians

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Protests are ramping up around the world
against Islamic extremists who have purged Iraqi Christians from lands
they have inhabited for 2,000 years.

Demonstrations against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria
(ISIS) have been held in England, Canada, Germany, France, Unites
States, Sweden, Denmark and Australia since the militia began
threatening Christians in Mosul to convert or be killed and blew up a tomb believed to be the burial place of the Biblical prophet Jonah last week. ISIS took control of Iraq’s second-largest city, where Christians have lived for the past 2,000 years, in June.

In many protests the demonstrators displayed the Arabic letter
"N" for "Nasrani," which means Christian in Arabic. With slogans such as
“Save the Christians of Iraq" and “Stop ISIS!” the protests have also
attracted many Arab and Kurdish Sunni and Shia Muslims, Yezidis, Faylis
and other minorities showing solidarity with persecuted Christians.

"I’ve come here to show that we all stand together and say no
to discrimination, regardless of religion and ethnicity," Khalil Yassin,
an Arab Sunni and leader of the Iraqi Cultural Centre in Copenhagen,
told Rudaw.

"I show my support for my Christian brothers and condemn in the
strongest terms ISIS’ threats and actions," Mossa Rashid, head of the
Kurdistan Democratic Party in Denmark, said.

The protests began after Louis Raphael Sako, Chaldean Catholic
Patriarch of Baghdad and the leader of Iraq’s biggest church, issued a
plea for international support.

“The control exercised by the Islamist jihadists upon the city
of Mosul, and their proclamation of it as an Islamic State, after
several days of calm and expectant watching of events, has now come to
reflect negatively upon the Christian population of the city and its
environs,” Sako maintained.

Copenhagen Catholic Bishop Czeslaw Kozon said more western leaders need to denounce ISIS’ attack on Christians.

"Once again we see that persecution of Christians is not
historical, but is happening right now,” he said. “It is worrying that
so few are aware of what is happening and that there is very little
press coverage."

Most of those who fled Mosul in recent weeks are now in the
Kurdistan Region. Mosul is the capital of Nineveh province, which was
once home to around 60,000 Assyrians, Chaldeans and other Christians.

"We are grateful to anyone who provides assistance to Christians in need," Kozon said.

There are about 4,000 Iraqi Christians in Denmark. Despite the
distance, they are impacted by the violence in Mosul and elsewhere, said
Marcus Sabri, the organizer of the demonstration in Copenhagen and a
leader in the Iraqi Christian Mar Abba parish.

"These are inhumane acts against Christians in Iraq. That is
our country, where we have always lived. These are our historic
buildings, heritage and churches that are being destroyed by ISIS,"
Sabri said.

Jens Juul Petersen, a Danish aid worker who works on Iraq, said
Iraqi Christians are often wrongly viewed as "western lackeys … despite
the fact that they are among the world's oldest Christian communities."

Christians in Iraq are splintered among different groups,
aren’t closely tied to the Vatican and don’t have a unified stance that
would help them lobby for western support. They also don’t have
militias, making them more vulnerable to Islamic extremists, Petersen
said.

Alan Pary, a poet originally from Sulaimaniya, is a
self-described Chaldean-Kurdish-Christian living in Denmark. He also
criticized silence of western leaders.

"It’s horrible that ISIS comes in and expels people from their
homes. The west went into Iraq in 2003 to create freedom, but now there
is terror and turmoil," he said.

In Paris, where two senior ministers offered asylum to Iraq’s
Christians last week, 100 members of the French parliament joined
demonstrators against ISIS. In addition, protests took place in
Washington, outside of the British Parliament in London, and in front of
the United Nations building in the Kurdistan Region capital, Erbil.

In Australia, the National Council of Churches urged the
government to pressure the UN Security Council to address the plight of
Iraqi Christians. The council has donated $30,000 to the Christian
refugee camps in Erbil.